Why is there no Union program on television? Satellite world

https://www.site/2016-10-12/pervyy_v_rossii_pravoslavnyy_telekanal_soyuz_riskuet_zakrytsya_iz_za_dolgov

“You shouldn’t advertise condoms, but you can advertise funeral services”

First in Russia Orthodox TV channel Soyuz risks closure due to debts

The Russian Orthodox Church may lose one of two Orthodox channels in the country Institute of Religion and Politics

The Orthodox TV channel “Soyuz”, established by the Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye diocese, may close due to multimillion-dollar debts. Now, as part of a charity marathon, the channel is trying to collect 47 million rubles, most of which - 44 million rubles - is debt for broadcasting. According to editor-in-chief Svetlana Ladina, financial difficulties exacerbated by the collapse of the ruble, and Soyuz had already had to stop broadcasting in North and South America. The diocese assures that the channel will not close in any case. Viewers are advised to start making money from advertising.

The fact that Soyuz has announced a charity marathon “From Sergius to Intercession” to raise 47 million rubles is stated on the channel’s website. Messages about this were also posted on social networks. Soyuz presenters regularly mention the marathon in their programs. In one of the motivational videos, Archpriest Dmitry Smirnov sternly asks viewers who went on vacation in the summer to “return to the normal rhythm of life and help the TV channel,” because “there is a huge risk of losing the pleasure of watching Soyuz.”

Most of the amount - 44 million rubles - is the debt for broadcasting, which accumulated from April to October 2016. So, as was indicated in the “running line” during one of the programs, if the debt for April is 4.1 million rubles, then for September it is already 10 million rubles. In addition, as part of the marathon, the TV channel wants to raise 3 million rubles to purchase servers to switch the broadcasting of the Soyuz TV channel from the 4:3 format to the 16:9 format. As the site explained Technical Director one of the Ural channels, the fundamental difference of the new format is that it allows you to correctly broadcast the broadcast picture on modern widescreen TVs.

“Soyuz” is the first Orthodox TV channel in Russia, which began broadcasting 11 years ago, on January 31, 2005. His first studio was located in Pervouralsk. The only founder was the Ekaterinburg and Verkhoturye diocese, which was then headed by Metropolitan Vikenty (now serving in Tashkent). Already in the spring of 2005, the channel moved to Yekaterinburg, to a building owned by the diocese next to the Central Stadium on Repina Street, 6 “a”. The only competitor of Soyuz, the Orthodox TV channel Spas, began broadcasting a little later on July 28, 2005. It was established by the Moscow Patriarchate.

As Soyuz chief editor Svetlana Ladina told the site, to date, the marathon has managed to collect only 10.35 million rubles, which made it possible to pay off debts for April and May. It was originally planned that the marathon would end on Saturday, October 15, but, according to Ladina, “the marathon will last until the required amount is collected.” In general, the maintenance of Soyuz, according to Ladina, requires 20 million rubles a month.

The Soyuz website states that the channel exists through donations, and TV viewers remember that this is not the first time the channel has held a charity marathon to save it from debt. However, according to Ladina, the situation worsened at the end of 2015 due to the collapse of the ruble. She explained that the channel pays satellite operators in foreign currency, and mainly receives donations in rubles. “There was a jump in the currency, and in terms of rubles, the amount the channel has to pay has increased,” she said. According to Ladina, this state of affairs forced Soyuz to abandon broadcasting in 17 countries of the North and South America, and now the channel is broadcast only in 100 countries in Eurasia.

By the way, Svetlana Ladina did not stay away from the marathon and starred in one of the videos in support of it. According to the plot, Ladina is in a huge pit, which, in her words, “symbolizes financial condition"Soyuz" TV channel. “It’s sad and dangerous to be in a hole. And, you know, I’m hungry,” Svetlana Ladina says in the video. Instead of answering, they hand her a bottle of water and a monastery curl. After this scene, she says: “Friends, support the Union.”

The channel's employees have not yet encountered any difficulties in their daily work. “The salary at the television company is very good, about 40-50 thousand. According to him, there have never been any interruptions in the payment of salaries.

Ural media managers consider the channel's requests to be adequate in terms of the stated broadcasting costs. "Probably like this large sum expenses of Soyuz, which is comparable to the expenses of, for example, OTV, is associated with wide territorial coverage,” suggested the head of Channel 4, Eleonora Rasulova.

Igor Grom

According to Bishop of Sredneuralsk Evgeniy Kulberg, the diocese helps the channel by the fact that Soyuz does not pay for the rent of the premises. The diocese also took over the payment of utilities.

“Soyuz is truly a national television channel, and therefore those who watch it themselves participate in its financing. And now there is a real need to stimulate the channel’s audience through a marathon,” Kulberg told the site, who has no doubt that “the Soyuz problem will be solved and the channel will not be closed.” However, he did not specify “by what methods and efforts the problem will be solved: will the diocese do this as entity or any affiliated structures." He said that “these are internal issues of the diocese.”

Meanwhile, some Soyuz viewers are beginning to get annoyed by requests for donations. “I love the TV channel, I help financially whenever possible... But I’m tired of constant SMS with requests for transfers of help. And not 1 SMS a day, but 4-5... A little annoying,” he wrote in official group"Union" on the social network "VKontakte" Alexander Medvedev. Another user Alexander Brigadier said that if from the air the program will disappear“I believe,” then the channel will lose “the last viewer (donor).” In his opinion, “pop guitarists will not make it through the channel.” The group’s administrators responded to him in an aggressive manner, offering to take over the program for monthly funding himself.

Many subscribers in the Soyuz group agree that it’s time for the channel to make money from advertising, which the channel refuses on principle (this follows from the statements of the channel’s employees on air and on social networks). Thus, viewer Alexey Ubogiy believes that “Union” “it’s time to close your pious snivels and take a firm step into the media market with the Word of God!” At the same time, he advised the channel’s management to be picky: “you shouldn’t advertise condoms on Soyuz, but you can advertise funeral services.”

Orthodox TV company "Union" is Orthodox in spirit, but not purely religious in media content.

This is a positive, family, home television based on traditional moral values and traditions national history and culture.

Orthodox TV company "Union" created with the blessing of the Ruling Bishop of the Ekaterinburg Russian Diocese Orthodox Church Archbishop of Yekaterinburg and Verkhoturye Vincent on the basis of the diocesan television studio and acquired by the Pervouralsk television company "Union".

On January 31, 2005, the television company, which previously had 40 minutes a day of its own airtime and rebroadcast programs of the NTV channel, completely changed its broadcasting schedule and began the formation of the first Orthodox television in Russia, building its work on Christian moral values.

The Ekaterinburg diocese is sole founder TV companies "Union", which is part of the structure of the diocesan Information and Publishing Department.

On December 21, 2005 in Moscow, at a meeting of the Federal Competition Commission for Television and Radio Broadcasting, a decision was made to grant the television company of the Yekaterinburg diocese “Soyuz” the right to broadcast on the 21st television channel in the city of Yekaterinburg. Thus, Soyuz became the first religious media in Russia to receive the opportunity to broadcast in a city of one and a half million people. The TV channel was also issued licenses for broadcasting in all regional centers Sverdlovsk region. In other regions of Russia and neighboring countries, programs of the first Russian Orthodox TV channel can be watched on cable networks, receiving them from the Eutelsat W-4 and Bonum - 1 satellites. The television company is in the process of concluding agreements with cable operators for rebroadcasting its programs on cable networks.

A distinctive feature of the content of the channel’s programs is the absence of commercial advertising, as well as any political assessments.

Since January 2005, the television company was visited, spoke on its live broadcast and expressed approval of its activities by the Administrator of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Kliment of Kaluga and Borovsk, the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, and other hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Other traditional confessions in Russia also evaluate the creation of the television company positively. So Danis-hazrat Davletov, imam of the Kyzyyat Muslim Department of the Sverdlovsk region, in his welcoming speech to the opening of the television company, said: “We know that there are many different media, television channels, they all sanctify reality, but not everywhere we see programs on moral and instructive topics... And Since the owner of this TV channel is the Orthodox Church, then we think that it will be a family channel.”

Support the creation of a television company and secular authorities. A letter from the Head of Administration of the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, A.Yu. Levin, states: “The Administration of the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region fully supports the initiative of the Yekaterinburg Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church to create a spiritual and educational channel in the Sverdlovsk Region. I am confident that the activities of the Soyuz television company will help strengthen social stability, improve the moral atmosphere and solve those tasks for the revival of the Fatherland that are now set before us by the President Russian Federation V.V. Putin."

The Orthodox television company "Soyuz" of the Yekaterinburg diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church is Orthodox in spirit, but not purely religious in media content.

Exclusively religious broadcasting on the channel is represented by weekly broadcasts of services from churches in Yekaterinburg and daily blocks of morning and evening prayers. These programs are intended for those who, due to old age, illness, or disability, are bedridden and cannot attend church.

The rest of the television company's programs, of course, being Orthodox in their core, at the same time are educational, educational, cultural, historical, local history, educational in nature, but are not purely religious.

– We continue talking about the Soyuz TV channel. There is a problem: cable television has turned off the Soyuz TV channel. What to do?

– Yes, we periodically receive such complaints. Fortunately, they are still isolated, cable networks understand: the Soyuz TV channel is in demand, has its own audience, so, thank God, these complaints do not come to us very often, but, nevertheless, they still happen.

The cable network is usually private, commercial organization. We cannot influence its activities: there is a businessman, the cable network is his private property, he can occupy all 40 buttons with channels “for adults”, as they call it now, or sports, or about animals, or Islamic - this is his right, his business. We, the Soyuz TV channel, cannot dictate to it what to show and what not to show. This is one side of the issue that needs to be understood correctly.

The other side: cable television is a business for those people who create it, they make money from it: their families eat with this money, dress, put on shoes, and so on. Therefore, cable operators are certainly interested in having all the topics that exist on television presented in their packages - children’s channels, hunting, fishing, sports, music, and art films. And since our people, thank God, are interested in issues of faith, as a rule, cable operators also include religious channels, in particular Soyuz. Sometimes it seems to them that there is some more popular channel that will attract more subscribers, and, accordingly, more subscription fees, and in connection with this they can turn off Soyuz and turn on some, say, youth music channel or sports , or something else. Therefore, if you want to watch Soyuz, you must call the cable operator and thank them when “Soyuz” is on. Don’t hesitate to call your cable network and say: “thank you for having the Soyuz TV channel in your package, that’s all we watch, that’s all we need.” Do you understand? Then the cable operator will know that Soyuz is in demand and cannot be turned off.

And even more so, you need to call a lot, a lot, when the Soyuz is suddenly turned off - you need to activate all your friends, acquaintances, neighbors, parishioners, the priest of your church and in general everyone you can, so that everyone calls. Cable operators are not evil people, they are businessmen: “there are no calls, which means no one is watching the channel, which means you can turn off and turn on another one that will be watched more.” They don't turn it off out of ill will - they count the money. And if you say, just not rudely, “We’ll probably disconnect from you if you don’t turn on Soyuz, and move to some other cable network,” then the cable operator will think even more. So you, the subscribers, just need to be more active.

You often call our channel and say: “Our Soyuz has been turned off, do something.” What can we do? We are an interested party, and the cable television operator will not really listen to us, he will only listen to you - the subscribers. Therefore, I will repeat again: when Soyuz is on, call and thank, and when Soyuz is turned off, call and demand to be turned on.

Two more points. Tell your friends and acquaintances who don’t have Soyuz on their cable networks, so that they also call and ask to turn on Soyuz, then you will be like missionaries, and you will provide us with very significant support, and you will help your friends and acquaintances. Second point: when your Soyuz suddenly disappears, don’t swear right away. Firstly, don’t swear at all, and secondly, don’t swear, so to speak, right away. For various technical reasons, channels are sometimes swapped, and Soyuz may simply end up on a different button, that is, it was not turned off, but simply moved to another button. Therefore, if Soyuz has disappeared, you can first try to turn on the auto-search for channels and look for Soyuz, and then try to talk with cable operators about the return of the TV channel.

I will take this opportunity to also touch on the issue of shutting down the Soyuz TV channel in Kazakhstan. It is now an independent state, with its own legislative framework, - at one time in Ukraine, Soyuz was turned off: the legislation changed there, but then we went through the approval procedure in the Verkhovna Rada, and thanks to the cable operators of Ukraine - they helped us. Now we need to do the same in Kazakhstan, we also have our friends there who promised to help us get everything Required documents to resume broadcasting in Kazakhstan. We know this problem, and I hope that broadcasting on cable networks in Kazakhstan will be restored in the near future.

Why, after almost 10 years of existence in Russia, has Orthodox television never gained widespread popularity even among believers? Crisis of ideas, lack of professionals and isolation on exclusively church topics.

What do viewers want from Orthodox television?

Who connects to the Spas and Soyuz TV channels? Who is their audience? Surprisingly, the management of these TV channels throughout their existence has never ordered ratings measurement. No one still knows the exact number of people in Russia who watch church TV channels.

It is clear that neither atheists nor people of other faiths will connect them to themselves. That is, it is no longer possible to talk about any external mission. Church television today is television for its own people.

But why do already baptized people connect to these TV channels? It can be assumed that most of them want to learn more about their faith. Viewers want to watch programs that tell in detail about Orthodoxy, about Christianity as such. About legend, about the essence of services, holidays, about traditions. About everything related to spiritual enlightenment.

Secondly, people want to get the church’s point of view on events in the country and society. Orthodox people need to have their own, Orthodox, view of what is happening in the country and the world. It is important for them to understand how to relate to certain phenomena.

Thirdly, people just want to take a break from the dominance of the “three Cs” (fear, sex, sensations) on other TV channels. Some people want to provide their children with content that is safer for the psyche.

But mostly people tune into Orthodox television because they want to learn more about their faith. It is believed that such TV channels will help deepen and expand knowledge about Orthodoxy. But do viewers of these channels get this opportunity to the fullest?

What Orthodox Television Has to Offer modern to a person?

What do viewers get in practice when they turn on, for example, the Orthodox TV channel Soyuz? They receive so-called “news”, talking head TV programs and documentaries of very low quality.

If you turn on the news on the Soyuz TV channel, then on the air you can only see: “The Patriarch went there...”, “Today is such and such a holiday, and therefore a service was held in such and such a church,” “In such and such a diocese it took place such and such a conference and such and such was discussed at it,” etc.

But what does all this have to do with real life Orthodox people? What do they care about diocesan meetings, speeches of bishops at conferences in synodal departments? Soyuz shows such news every day. You can turn it on right now and watch the nearest news release. And then watch the news the next day, at the same time, and then another week later - the same approach to choosing information occasions. Add to this the dull faces of the presenters, who themselves seem not to be interested in what they are talking about, poor diction, Yekaterinburg dialect and leisurely reading of voice-over texts. And this is at a time when a huge number of events are happening in the country that really concern each of us. But for some reason all these events go unnoticed by the cameras of the Orthodox TV channel Soyuz.

You cannot take the position: “only life in the Temple.” When His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II blessed the creation of the Orthodox TV channel "Spas", he said to the general director of the TV channel Alexander Batanov, so that the latter would have fewer priests in the frame. Alexander Batanov himself repeated this order of the Patriarch more than once in interviews with secular publications regarding the formation of church television in Russia.

His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II understood how important it is not to “over-Orthodoxize” the airwaves. The leadership of Soyuz, judging by today’s broadcasts, does not understand this. CEO TV channel Hegumen Dimitry Baibakov considers only those events where a priest is present to be worthy of the attention of his television cameras, and, consequently, of his entire audience. “We consider only an event in which a priest takes part to be Orthodox” - this is exactly the answer you can hear when you call the editorial office in the Moscow or Yekaterinburg office of the TV channel. If the priest is at the event you want to invite film crew There is no “Union”, then such an event is a priori not interesting. Even if this concerns the real life of the majority of citizens of our country.

But the life of a Christian does not only take place in the Temple. Modern Orthodox active person most spends his time at work, on business, traveling and with family. Have you seen at least one socio-political program on the Soyuz TV channel? They are not there. Hot topics are never brought up in the news. Everything is calm, unctuous and monotonous.

As a result, to find out what is happening in the country, Orthodox person you still have to turn on “Vremya” on “First” or “Vesti” on “Russia 1”.

What kind of TV programs can you see on Soyuz? Basically, these are half-hour programs where one, maximum two people simply speak: a guest and a host, usually a priest. Sometimes these are simply recordings of lectures, sermons or prayers. “Lessons of Orthodoxy”, “Sacraments of the Church”, “Spiritual Reflections”, “Lectures by Professor A.I. Osipov”, “Sobriety”, “Conversations with Bishop Paul”, etc. It is unlikely that many people will be, as they say, “hooked” by the names themselves. Just conversations, lectures and more conversations. And also " Morning prayers" And " Evening prayers", filmed in an empty church once and repeated on air day after day for several years now.

And the main thing is that all these television programs have the same intonation of some incomprehensible hopeless sadness. Looking at the floor, sadness, and no joy. If the apostles had preached the same way, it is unlikely that Orthodoxy would have spread throughout the world.

Famous missionary Andrey Kuraev wrote about this in his book “Perestroika into the Church”: “There is not enough material, variety of genres, faces and intonations. Something monotonous, monochrome appears, a picture of an Orthodox ghetto. The same words, pictures, angles, sighs, the same kind of repentant, sighing, sad intonation.”

Discussion television programs on Soyuz are filmed, as a rule, from two cameras, although to film such television programs, according to all the laws of the genre, there must be at least three cameras. Filming is underway mainly on the road, and not in the studio: the journalist goes to the priest’s parish, sits down with him somewhere and interviews him for a half-hour. After which it is mounted and broadcast under beautiful name“TV program such and such.” The editing of shots is infrequent, there is no camera movement, everything is very static.

"Talking Heads" is the simplest format. What could be simpler: sit two people down, let one ask and the other answer. Thus, television programs were filmed only in the early stages of the development of television, when television broadcasting in itself was still a novelty. But then “talking heads” were abandoned, primarily because of the boringness of this format. Only interviews with masters, it seems Dmitry Dibrov or showmen like Ivan Urgant channel management trusts to carry this genre. Bye Vladimir Pozner He hosted his own program on Channel One, it was filmed from ten cameras, and sliders were used. All this in order to get away from a static picture. In the program “Temporarily Available” with Dmitry Dibrov and Dmitry Gubin on TVC creative Group I tried to move away as much as possible from just a conversation between two people. They made two hosts, a panel with video questions from famous people, with which they try in every possible way to diversify the program.

Surprisingly, the programs filmed in the studio of the Soyuz TV channel do not even have scenery. There is only their likeness in the form of artificial trees behind the backs of chairs from IKEA, in which the priests are sitting, or an oilcloth banner background depicting evening Moscow. Moreover, regional studios that send their programs to Soyuz usually have scenery. Some of them are more or less decent. Therefore, these programs look much more professionally made than home-made programs. For example, “Sedmitsa”, filmed in Sevastopol.

If the Soyuz TV channel offered television programs produced in its studios to any other channel, even a cable or regional one, it is unlikely that anyone would need these “talking heads.” They won’t be accepted, not because the management of secular channels is not interested in religious topics. She has just become a trend on TV. They won’t take it because the TV programs are very poor from a professional-technical and professional-artistic point of view.

None of the Orthodox TV channels produces documentaries. Spas buys films, for example, from the Sretenie studio. "Union" takes everything that they are willing to give it for free. Can such church “television” satisfy modern viewer. Everyone is free to answer for themselves...

The situation at Spas is not much better. Spas has a professional studio with massive sets. TV programs filmed there look at least at the level of a good regional TV channel. But the number of these television programs can be counted on one hand, and all of them are filmed only in this studio. Only the presenters, screensavers and topics of conversation change.

The hieromonk conducts his program most captivatingly Dimitry Pershin. Archpriest invites famous guests and talks with them on sensitive topics Dimitry Smirnov. As for the rest of the TV programs - all the same talking heads.

There is still no such deliberately emphasized isolation within the church fence as on the Soyuz TV channel on Spas. In the socio-political programs “Russia and the World” and “Conservative Club” many actual problems, existing in modern society. But all of Spas’ own production is limited to these television programs. The rest of the airtime is covered by documentaries, usually not new ones, but from the channel’s archives.

Recently, the Spas TV channel entered the second multiplex. This obviously could not have happened without good support from the government, because Spas’s own professional, technical, creative and production potential could not have been objectively enough to win the tender. The reason for “Spas” getting into the second multiplex is political. The Dozhd TV channel intended to join it. The presidential administration and the Ministry of Information understood that it was necessary to create a counterbalance to him. The Spas TV channel became this counterbalance. Now the offended Dozhd reports that the Church, together with the government and business circles, plans to create a new conservative TV channel on the basis of Spas. So far, “Spas” continues to be what it was in last years- a TV channel designed for a very narrow audience.

Television for grandmothers, or television of the future?

The law of television is simple: if the viewer is not affected by what he sees on air, he switches to another channel. Serious problem church television channels is that they do not exist in a competitive environment. They never knew her and do not know her. They have no one to compete with, and, at first glance, there is no need to compete. They don't even have competition with each other. Both TV channels exist with church money and money from sponsors. Therefore, the management of these channels, unlike producers on secular TV, is not in a situation where they need to constantly improve their content and fight for the viewer’s attention.

Why, despite the fact that the Church has two television channels, not one of them, in almost ten years of its existence, has become truly interesting and popular? Because the Church has never seriously dealt with either one or the other. Orthodox TV channels have never been church missionary projects. “Union” was an unexpected gift to the Yekaterinburg Diocese from a local entrepreneur. "Spas", after it was sold by its creators to the Moscow Patriarchate, turned out to be like a child with seven nannies. The Church does not know what to do with Orthodox TV channels, does not know how to manage them, and its information, information and missionary resources she still doesn't have one.

The most surprising thing in this whole situation is that on secular television channels there are many examples of how television programs and documentaries about Orthodoxy were shot professionally and interestingly. Just remember the talk show “Russian View”, which aired on TVC for many years. There is a professionally produced series about Russian saints and new martyrs “Saints” on TV3. Eat " Orthodox Encyclopedia"on TVC. Previously, the same TV channel also created a multi-part series “Planet of Orthodoxy”, which is still in demand on torrents on the Internet.

There is a studio called “Sretenie”, which produces entire documentary series of films about Orthodoxy, saints, and the history of the Church in recent decades. These films are made at the level of documentary films on federal TV channels. They are professionally filmed, edited and voiced. They captivate. They are interesting to watch.

But what prevents television programs and documentaries of a high professional level from being made on church television channels? It would seem that they are the ones who should set the trend. The point, first of all, is “political will” on the part of the Moscow Patriarchate and the lack of necessary personnel.

Until church television channels are considered by the Moscow Patriarchate as missionary projects, everything will remain as it is. A sluggish state will not go away on its own, because it is always very convenient to exist by inertia. Instead of an Orthodox view of current events, viewers of these TV channels will continue to watch diocesan news reports. But it is necessary to show in the news what really concerns the majority of people today, and not the reported events in the dioceses, for show in front of the ruling bishops. The information policy of an Orthodox TV channel should not be limited to intra-church news. Most of the events that concern society today take place outside the temple fence.

What is required to create an interesting TV program or documentary and do it on high professional level? In order to create interesting content, you need to work hard. We need knowledge, we need professionals who can do this. There are none, or almost none, on today's church television channels.

What is needed is a methodical understanding of the path traveled and all the mistakes made. We need an understanding of how to talk about Orthodoxy today, about a person’s personal faith, about the life of the Church. We need to talk about what Faith, the Church, Christ gives people. And show it in such a way that the very form of presenting the material captivates the audience - then people will be interested in watching it